Chapter 7 - THE PENTHOUSE BUILT FROM FROZEN WAGES.
Rose admitted signing the extensions.
The hotel was near foreclosure, and lenders threatened to eliminate every staff position. Rose believed delaying wages would save jobs until business recovered.
“It recovered after six months,” Teresa said. “Our pay did not.”
Rose had trusted Peter’s reports that the company remained unstable. She never checked the operating accounts herself.
“I allowed distance to become an excuse,” Rose said. “Put my shares under review.”
Elena did not defend her mother.
The council ordered repayment with interest before either woman could seek elected authority.
Brooke smiled as if shared wrongdoing made her cruelty ordinary.
Marcus stopped her.
“One leader failed to verify. You targeted the people least able to fight back. Both matter. They are not the same.”
Then auditors found where the withheld wages went.
They had financed the hotel’s luxury penthouse level, including Brooke’s residence.
But the purchase order carried Daniel’s signature.
He stared at the page.
May you like
“I was not working here then.”
The signature belonged to Daniel’s late father, who had used the same name.
